**Callan"Bro, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm the driver?" Roman said, booting me over into the passenger side of the golf cart.Roman was pretty much my best friend. We were cousins who grew up together on the same street, and we even went to the same college. Some people joked that we were soulmates, two halves of the same person. It actually made a lot of sense, considering how opposite we were and how well we got along despite that. And as far as I knew, even soulmates could irritate you. I let him push me over since I didn't have the stamina to fight him all day. I'd had a terrible night's sleep because I kept waking up from the same dream of the girl on the fire escape. Every time I closed my eyes, we were kissing, we were looking up at the stars, we were swinging our legs off the side of the fire escape. This little dream was beginning to feel less like a dream and more like a curse. Her face was fuzzy, or maybe I just wasn't able to recall her upo
**IsaTaking on the Luca Project was exciting. Being entrusted to lead my team and oversee an important client such as Gabriella gave me a real sense of purpose. If I kept making moves forward, I could forget about Thomas and losing my company. But it wouldn't be enough just to do well; I had to be better. Callan Arison was expecting me to fail. So obviously, I couldn't. I heard the rustle of footsteps and suit pants pass by my door and instinctively looked up from my bright computer screen. I watched as Callan and his assistant passed by. That was, until Callan glanced over at me.My chest pounded suddenly, and I ducked behind my computer. Just as quickly as I ducked away, I realized there was no reason for me to hide. I straightened back up in my seat just to feel my stomach sink with disappointment when he immediately turned his head away. I glared towards the sound of his disappearing footsteps and rolled my eyes at myself. Here I was being ridiculous again. H
**CallanMy eyes fell on her as soon as we walked into the bar. I had nearly forgotten that the Luca team had invited me out for drinks until Roman called me up and asked me to go out. I wasn't planning on drinking with them, but having Roman by my side gave me a good excuse to be able to leave early or hang around longer, depending on what I needed him for. "Hey," Roman piped up. He elbowed me in the arm and nodded his head towards the table. "Does that one girl look familiar? The one with the long brown hair and nice rac—"I elbowed him back. "Don't talk about my employees like that," I grunted. Roman guffawed. But I could tell by the smirk on his face that he already knew the answer to the question. The team spotted us and waved us over to the table, pulling out a couple of chairs at the ends for us to sit in. "Boss!" Gary, the legal guy, called out. "You decided to come after all!"I forced a smile and nodded. Though I tried not to be obvious
**Isa"... So then Pam said, 'I won't have those kinds of shenanigans in my office!'" David chuckled.Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a flash of two people I recognized, one of them being Callan. I looked up, locking eyes with him. His eyes flashed at me as though he were angry, then he turned with Jeffery and walked away. I briefly wondered why I felt so flustered, as though I were betraying a lover, but then decided to let it go. I was enjoying David's story, after all."What happened to Stanley?" I asked, engrossed."He ended up quitting. I think another co-worker put ghost peppers in his sandwich, so when Stanley went to steal it, he turned almost purple," David said."Well, serves him right for stealing other people's lunches," I decided.David nodded. "So, how have things been going for you? I think Callan is impressed with your performance."As we walked to the elevator, I reflected on how easy things were with David. He was funny, witty, and always
**IsaFor a man who low-key warned me to be professional at work, Callan was sure looking like a hypocrite. Every day it was something new, some problem, some miscommunication, some expectation that wasn't met. As it turned out, I had to pride myself on not murdering my boss for over a week. Everything I did, every report I turned in, every presentation I gave, EVERYTHING had "room for improvement."Of course, as a businesswoman, I knew that everything DOES have room for improvement. But, occasionally, a person likes to hear they did a good job."What, what is it THIS time?!" I finally snapped as I walked back into Callan's office at Jeffery's bidding. Callan's office was becoming my second home. Pretty soon, I was going to pitch a tent in the conversation corner.Callan raised an eyebrow at me."Sir?" I added tersely."Better, but still insubordinate," Callan intoned, looking back down at the leather-bound folder in his hands. He was standing with his suit jacket draped
**Isa"Check this again. You shouldn't be missing this kind of stuff during reviews."That's what the sticky note on my pile of paperwork said when I got to my office Monday morning, a few weeks after the incident where I'd drank way too much out at the bar with my coworkers. I huffed at the little green piece of paper and wondered how long it had been waiting for me. Did this man ever go home?I picked up the papers and looked them over to find red ink circling a few places where the numbers on the report didn't match up. I wouldn't have missed this, I thought. Looking closer at the document, I quickly realized that this paper hadn't passed through my hands until now. Yet, I was the one being blamed for this mistake. How annoying. Clearly, it was time to have a chat with my team about how this was supposed to work. They shouldn't be handing things off to Callan without me seeing them first. But right now, there was someone else I wanted to speak with.I
**CallanI could no longer tell what Isa was thinking. Of course, I hadn't intended to scold her nor ask her out on a business date, yet here I was. I'm sure she was more thrown than I was. She had really been doing some weird things to me and my mind, especially since I had been able to recall who exactly she was.The problem was that I didn't think she remembered me at all, and I wasn't sure what to do now. Not only that, but my attraction to her had twisted my usual habit of finding people's strengths and critiqing them until they do better, and instead, it caused me to start looking like I was picking on her.That wasn't the case at all. Yes, I did point out some flaws in her work, and I did leave her annoying sticky notes, but it was never my intention to make her feel like I was pointing her out in a crowd and trying to make her look bad.I looked at her, silently hating myself for being too much myself.... How was it that she was able to both activat
**IsaThe printer whizzed and buzzed and shot out the quarterly report in a quick steady rhythm. The sound was entrancing as I watched the papers spit out one by one into the tray. My mind wasn't anywhere in particular, but something in there told me to get back to reality. As soon as I looked up, Callan was walking by with Jeffery chatting away at his side. He turned his head to see me standing by the copy machine, and he smiled effortlessly. It was a small twist of the lips that was neither flirty nor professional.Perhaps I wasn't fully out of my dazed moment, but I couldn't even process our wordless exchange until he had gone by and disappeared down the hall. Instead of making my heart race or my blood boil like he had been doing the past few weeks, this time I felt a bit… sad. No. I think I felt guilty. I knew that I had the right to be upset with him for being nitpicky about my work just because it was a little different than the way he and his